Grinds Done Right.

[radioactive_lego]

#1: FFVI - prior to final fight w/ Kefa. Grinding Levels/Stat bonuses with appropriate Espers in the Forest with Dinosaurs. (9999 dmg ICE/FIRE/BOLT 2's on Relm)

#2: Space Rangers 2 - Any time once you can kill a Dominator. Finding Dominators or Pirates to kill for thier spare parts.

#3: MechWarrior IV - Farming uber weapons on exceptionally replayable lower levels. (Salvage all M****F****!)

#4: FFXIV - Initial quest to get a relic weapon, and it's first upgrade. (everything after has been pretty much crap)

[Lemuria]

Hmm, this needs to be a fairer comparison. How about comparing it to other MMO grinds and we'll see how well they compare. I do agree that FFXIV doesn't have the best grind out there, but this comparison serves it more of an injustice than it deserves.

[Risvertasashi]

Hmm, this needs to be a fairer comparison. How about comparing it to other MMO grinds and we'll see how well they compare. I do agree that FFXIV doesn't have the best grind out there, but this comparison serves it more of an injustice than it deserves.

Honestly though, I think MMOs comparing themselves to each other is a big reason for the genre's homogeneity. I really wish more MMOs would look outside their own genre for ideas and ask, 'That looks fun...How we can do that in a massively multiplayer world?'

[myahele]

how about dodging 100 lighting bolts in FF10?

[radioactive_lego]

Hmm, this needs to be a fairer comparison. How about comparing it to other MMO grinds and we'll see how well they compare. I do agree that FFXIV doesn't have the best grind out there, but this comparison serves it more of an injustice than it deserves.

I dont think It's an unfair comparison. I put 99+ hours into Grinding max stats in FFVI. Just because it's not an MMO doesn't mean it's not a grind worth doing.

Furthermore, I dont have a lot of grind experience in MMOs. The only comparable would be card grinds in RO.

[Ilitsa]

I don't think that the relic quest has been all THAT bad, to be honest. WoW's Legendary Ring quest is quite a lot more frustrating to be honest.

Also, if you wanna go farther back, Ragnarok Online's Valkyrie Helm was a hell of a lot more tedious and not nearly as rewarding Click (make sure to CTRL+F Valkyrie Helm once there) as the cards had a 0.01% drop chance, and you needed 10,000,000 Zeny (In game currency, like our Gil is now) and they didn't have quests/roulettes that rewarded cash at all, you had to rely on selling junk to npcs, or getting lucky and finding a drop other players would want to buy, there was also no market board.

[Lemuria]

how about dodging 100 lighting bolts in FF10?

As I recall, it was 200... and one of the reasons I never got Lulu's celestial weapon upgrade.

Honestly though, I think MMOs comparing themselves to each other is a big reason for the genre's homogeneity. I really wish more MMOs would look outside their own genre for ideas and ask, 'That looks fun...How we can do that in a massively multiplayer world?'

While I understand the sentiment, it's important to understand the distinction between a single player experience and a multiplayer online experience.

There are a lot of mechanics which simply don't transfer well because the onus is to encourage party play. Furthermore, in a single player game you pay once for the game and there's no subscription. With an MMO, the company needs a steady income to maintain the service we all know and love. To do this, it needs to keep people playing, which is why a lot of the grinds often take longer.

Grinds also need to consider this longevity in their rewards. They can't go making everyone a super powered warrior dealing 9999 damage on every strike, so things have to be balanced over time. As a result, the grinds are designed to bridge the gap between today's gear and tomorrow's gear.

Now, despite this I won't go saying that I love the relic grind. I loathe it. I'm currently grinding light for my nexus and it feels like it's taken an eternity already. It's not very well paced, and it's not very fun. But despite not enjoying it I understand why it exists in its current form.

[HeavensSword]

At least it's not FFXI relics/mythics.

People complained about WoW's Legendary Cloak quest being grindy, but it's really a joke in comparison to other MMO grinds including XIV's. I'll give Blizz credit in that at least that particular quest for the cloak included interesting story and cutscenes as well as it's own fights and objectives. It had some "Do X content for a chance at Y token" for some parts, but was just enough to break the monotony.

In XIV it starts out fine; we were getting some lore with our weapons and I thought it was going to be something cool, but after Gerolt they may have well just handed my character a laundry list and said "Okay, Go".

[DoctorPepper]

I agree that the relic grind is terrible, I recently started my zodiac dungeon grind and I got lucky, got my 1st item on my 5th dungeon or so. After that I've done around 40 dungeons in a row now without any more items dropping and as a result I've pretty much stopped playing this game aside from fcob out of frustration.

Grind with a clear endpoint is one thing, I can handle that. Grinding the same set of dungeons that give literally no reward at all to my character over 40 times with absolutely no progress is another.

[HeavensSword]

As I recall, it was 200... and one of the reasons I never got Lulu's celestial weapon upgrade.

It was 200. Honestly Tidus' Caladbolg was more annoying requiring a time of like 0 with the chocobo race. There is a spot in Thunder Plains north of the Al Bhed hut near like a small pond or something that had a very predictable rhythm to it's lightning strikes. Just needed a little patience and the ability to keep a beat.

I'm recalling this all from my childhood so hopefully i'm not too incorrect. I have the HD edition of FFX in my bookshelf... i should actually play it. I'm getting all nostalgic.